Wavering Water Border through United States Coast Guard: Chinese Racialization, National Security, and the Militarization

• In Event: The Body Adrift: Borders, Race, and Resistance from the Rio Grande to the Pacific

Abstract

From an underfunded unit with ten vessels to a well-equipped department with two hundred and forty-three cutters and over fifteen hundred boats, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) has evolved from its original role of safeguarding American waters to a multifaceted agency with diverse responsibilities. The proliferation of Chinese smuggling boats in the 1990s became a symbolic and material threat, forcing the U.S. to redefine its borders in ways that transcended the traditional notion of borderland. I build upon Erika Lee and Ko-Lin Chin’s analysis of the Chinese Exclusion Act, highlighting how the narrative of “smuggling” continues the racialization of Chinese bodies as goods rather than people. At the same time, the contemporary “Chinese threat” to national security is based on the American geopolitical relationship with China, positioning Chinese migrants as economic opportunists and even potential foreign espionage. Through an analysis of key policy changes and rhetoric in USCG publications, I argue that the racialization of Chinese bodies and the national security concerns about U.S. water borders directly contributed to the enactment of Executive Order 12807, granting USCG immigration interdiction power. The racialized threat of Chinese bodies as dangerous, diseased, and commodities provides an opportunity for fear, allowing the United States to expand geographical control of the Pacific Ocean. USCG’s transition to an immigration interdiction service reflects broader sentiments to militarize water borders, casting the ocean as both a barrier of entry and a space of exclusion. This expansion of U.S. border water parallels the increased surveillance of U.S. coastlines, supported by the advancement of technology and an increased racialized threat to national security. As immigration practices and policies continue to shift, I trace this change in USCG behaviors to reflect larger political rhetoric and public perception of migration and refugeehood, reflecting the fluidity in maritime border and immigration practices.

Author

• Crys Zhao, University of Texas At Austin